1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a distributed computing system, particularly to a system that manages user access to resources residing on a network.
2. Description of Related Art
As more and more computers are connected via the Internet or a network such as an intranet or wide-area-network (WAN), resources such as databases, software applications, hardware devices, and electronic appliances can be shared among users within a network. Specifically, an application service provider (ASP) model, in which applications residing on a remote server are provided to a plurality of users who pay for such applications, requires a system to verify and manage user access to such applications.
Presently, various licensing managing methods have been developed to address the management of user access. For example, many software applications are licensed on a computer-by-computer basis or by user basis, in which each computer or each user is given a unique license key to initiate access to a resource. However, this sort of licensing management system is limiting, as it cannot accommodate other licensing criteria such as by usage basis, by time basis, by user-to-user relationship, or by priority basis. This extensibility to manage any type or combination of license criteria is especially important in an ASP model, as the service provider is required to handle numerous different licensing policies for each application and each user.
Licensing management systems have been developed to accommodate additional licensing criteria such as a pay-per-user licensing system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,789, Frison, et al., in which a licensing manager monitors usage and bills the user accordingly for use. However, the system lacks the flexibility to handle different licensing policy criteria associated with a same user or among a group of different users, and different licensing policy criteria associated with a same application or among a group of different applications. In addition, prior art license management systems need to be programmed to handle different license policies and often are not compatible with each other.
Therefore, it is advantageous to have an extendible and flexible system to manage any combination of license criteria that a resource provider requires.